. >> joining me now is new york democratic congressman steve israel. sir, great to have you with us. mitch mcconnell saying the president should be speaking to members of his own party. interestingly enough, moments ago we heard from someone within mitch mcconnell's party, speaker john boehner, saying he thinks a deal is possible. take a listen. >> it's time for the president and democrats to get serious about the spending problem that our country has. but i'm optimistic. >> he's optimistic. we also have boehner saying he is disagreeing with tom cole, one of the few republicans who have come out to usual his party to strike a deal. right now, get this done. keeping the bush tax cults for 98% of americans, give up on keeping tax cuts low for the wealthy, 2%. take a listen to what cole on capitol hill had to say moments ago. >> in my view, we all agree that we're not going to raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000. we should take them out of this discussion right now and continue to fight against any rate increase, continue to try to work hone